Byron Bay may be the major drawcard for international tourists, but other popular beach destinations such as Shelly Beach at East Ballina will be also promoted under a new ‘Byron Bay and Beyond’ campaign being launched by Northern Rivers Tourism. David Nielsen

Tourism campaign for Byron

ATTRACTING international visitors to the region will be one of the top priorities for Northern Rivers Tourism this year.

Chief executive Russell Mills said the number ofinternational tourists coming to the area had dropped slightly over the past 12 months.

“The competition for inbound visitors will be intense this year, so we need to have an active presence in our core markets,” he said.

“We will be introducing the Northern Rivers as ‘Byron Bay and Beyond’.

“This will serve to talk to the international market about destinations they have heard of, while giving us the opportunity to introduce the wider region and our export ready product partners.”

Northern Rivers Tourism has appointed Parker Travel Collection to help with the new campaign.

Parker Travel Collection managing director Todd Parker said it was encouraging to see regions like the Northern Rivers dedicateresources to the international markets.

“Such a fabulous destination offers international travellers an authentic Australian holiday experience – beach life and water-based experiences, thriving market culture, an emphasis on health and wellness, precious natural assets in the hinterland and National Parks of the region and an incredible bounty of locally-grown produce – all combined in one accessible region,” he said.

New tourism figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics last week showed that visitors continued to flock to Australia from countries like the USA, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, India and China.

Tourism Australia managing director Andrew McEvoy said markets such as the UK, Germany and New Zealand remained steady.

“However, markets like Japan and Korea posted significant declines mainly due to local economic condit-ions,” he said.

“Last year international visitors would have injected around $25 billion into the Australian economy, which benefits everyone and provides valuable employment to around half a million Australians.”

WHERE ARE OUR TOURISTS FROM?

In the year ended September 2009, the Northern Rivers received 227,200 international overnight visitors.

They spent more than 1.8 million nights in the region.

More than 69,000 people visited the region from the United Kingdom.

Germany accounted for 25,446 of the Northern Rivers’ international tourists.

18,630 people visited from America.

New Zealanders accounted for 16,812 of the tourists and more than 13,000 were from Scandinavia.